title: A food plant specialist in Sparganothini: A new genus and species from Costa Rica (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae).
abstract: Sparganocosma docsturnerorum Brown, new genus and new species, is described and illustrated from Área de Conservación (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. The new genus shares a long, crescent- or ribbon-shaped signum in the corpus bursae of the female genitalia with Aesiocopa Zeller, 1877, Amorbia Clemens, 1860, Amorbimorpha Kruse, 2011, Coelostathma Clemens, 1860, Lambertiodes Diakonoff, 1959, Paramorbia Powell & Lambert, 1986, Rhynchophyllus Meyrick, 1932, Sparganopseustis Powell & Lambert, 1986, Sparganothina Powell, 1986, and Sparganothoides Lambert & Powell, 1986. Putative autapomorphies for Sparganocosma include the extremely short uncus; the smooth (unspined) transtilla; and the upturned, free, distal rod of the sacculus. Adults of Sparganocosma docsturnerorum have been reared numerous times (>50) from larvae collected feeding on rain forest Asplundia utilis (Oerst.) Harling and Asplundia microphylla (Oerst.) Harling (Cyclanthaceae) at intermediate elevations (375-500 m) in ACG. Whereas most Sparganothini are generalists, typically feeding on two or more plant families, Sparganocosma docsturnerorum appears to be a specialist on Asplundia, at least in ACG. The solitary parasitoid wasp Sphelodon wardae Godoy & Gauld (Ichneumonidae; Banchinae) has been reared only from the larvae of Sparganocosma docsturnerorum.
authors.affiliation: Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Janzen
authors.forename: Winnie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hallwachs
keywords: ACG; Costa Rica; Cyclanthaceae; caterpillar; food plants; morphology; new genus; new species; parasitoid; tortricid moth